


Jimmy Loved the Stars

by weepingnaiad



Category: Star Trek (2009)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-02-01
Updated: 2011-02-01
Packaged: 2017-10-15 10:32:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 627
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/159933
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/weepingnaiad/pseuds/weepingnaiad
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><b>Summary:</b>  This is an expansion of a short fill for this prompt: <i>And very often on an Iowa night, I’d see him standing in the yard.  I can’t describe how I love that boy, but Jimmy loved the stars</i></p>
            </blockquote>





	Jimmy Loved the Stars

**Author's Note:**

  * For [abigail89](https://archiveofourown.org/users/abigail89/gifts).



> **Beta:** the gorgeous, jlh. Thank you so much!
> 
>  **A/N:** I have to thank ryo_of_imratdor for providing the Russian. Hover if you’d like a translation.
> 
>  **A/N 1:** The wonderful rubynye offered a commentfic meme for her birthday with some amazing prompts (I still want to fill more than a few of them). My original, very short fill, can be found [Here](http://rubynye.livejournal.com/547041.html?thread=7921121#t7921121)
> 
>  **Disclaimer:** These characters and the world they live in belong to the Master, Roddenberry. I am only borrowing them so they can come out and frolic a bit, not intending any copyright infringement of any sort. I do own my original characters, but they are available for parties!

When the nights grow long and the dark becomes too deep, she wonders if she did the right thing. She misses talking about the stars, about the blooming of life, about anything that’s not endless diapers and pureed food and the same two hundred words day in and day out.

She’s sure her mind has atrophied, that she can no longer tell flagella from cilia, and she doubts, second guesses, almost calls him.

But David smiles at her, calls her _mama,_ wraps his chubby arms around her neck and kisses her, babbling nonsense words as he points at the night sky and she wouldn’t change a thing.

~*~

From the minute the Vulcan distress call is leaked to the press, Carol is glued to the news feeds, watching and praying. She gets next to no sleep, but who could sleep when Vulcan is gone and Earth almost met the same fate? She shudders and drags David closer, hugging him tightly until he squirms away.

Already he hates to be held and she can only watch him scamper away, unconcerned in his innocence.

The news is unimaginable, but the silence is even worse. She can’t believe how many ships were lost. Her heart clenches when she looks at David and thinks he might never know his dad. _Just like Jim._

At that moment, she regrets with her whole being and it tears through her until she cries, her sobs loud enough that David comes running and hugs her. “Don’t cry, mama. I don’t like it when you cry.”

She smiles through the tears, trying to be brave, and nods. “Okay, little man.”

Still sniffling, she calls Winona. Admits to her what she kept from Jim. Winona looks at her with blank eyes and an impassive face. Carol can’t read her and wants to fidget like David under her gaze. “Can I see him?” she asks so softly Carol almost misses it.

She sleeps in Jim’s old room and, surrounded by his childhood possessions, she’s unsure if the waiting is easier or not. But she smiles for David and her guilt eases as she watches Winona play with him.

~*~

The waiting is interminable, and then, almost in the blink of an eye, she’s standing amidst a sea of hopeful faces, sealed off and away from the endless reporters that had been camped outside of Winona’s farmhouse. The waiting is driving her mad, butterflies in her stomach morphing into a herd of stampeding elephants when the arrival claxon sounds.

She hears the roar in the embarkation lounge. Knows what that means. Turning as the door opens, she grips David’s hand tighter and he wraps one arm around her legs, his eyes wide at the cacophony that assails them. Stern faced men in black march into the room, followed by men and women in gold, red, and blue. Silence reigns and then a tall, dark-haired woman cries out, “Pavlik, detka! Slava bogu!” and the artificial façade shatters. Joyful chaos erupts around Carol and she reaches down, lifts David so that he can see. The three of them stand there together, the moment stretching in time until Carol’s sure she’s forgotten how to breathe.

The last ones through the door surprise Carol. It’s Jim flanked by two men in blue. They split up when there’s a cry of “Leo!” from beside Carol and she smiles as a grey-haired woman pushes past and nearly bowls over the man on Jim’s left.

Then her breath does leave her, whooshing out in one quick exhale as Jim nears.

“Carol? Mother?”

David lifts his head from Carol’s shoulder and looks up when he hears Jim’s voice. And she can see it, the moment Jim realizes he’s looking into his own eyes.

“Jim, this is David.”

The End


End file.
